Giro d'Italia: Remco Evenepoel wins stage 9 time-trial but fails to create meaningful differences

Remco Evenepoel has won stage 9 of the Giro d'Italia, taking the win on the second time-trial of the race however creating differences much smaller than those of the opening day.

The 35-kilometer time-trial was expected to be a crucial day in this Giro and the one where the biggest gaps would be formed in the opening week. The wet roads made it a tricky day, Alex Kirsch, Edoardo Affini and Michael Hepburn put on the first strong times in the day for reference.

Bauke Mollema, Bruno Armirail and then finally Stefan Küng put in strong times that would already make it challenging for the stage win. With the absence of Filippo Ganna the Swissman was the strongest purist at the start and he sat on the hotseat as the GC contenders departed.

However as the main men who are in the fight for the pink jersey began to roll through the intermediate points the tension grew for Küng. Tao Geoghegan Hart and Geraint Thomas both improved on the time, and then Remco Evenepoel put in 11 seconds on Thomas himself, anticipating a second strong win.

The distances were cut in the second intermediate, here Evenepoel only had 2 seconds on the Welshman, whilst Geoghegan Hart jumped into the hot seat 2 seconds faster than Küng. Thomas would then take the lead by 1 second. Evenepoel passed through the final intermediate spot and shockingly all three were tied perfectly in time.

1 second was what decided the stage win. Evenepoel has hit back in the final intermediate section and flew into his second stage win of the race. Thomas and Hart followed very closely after.

Evenepoel has taken 1 second on Thomas, 2 on Hart, 17 on Roglic, 35 on Almeida and 42 on Caruso, all of which defended themselves well against the clock. Race leader Andreas Leknessund only lost 1:15 minutes, but has not been able to hold on to the pink jersey.